


The Night Mind Case Files - Steven Universe

by Doc_Cairo



Category: Night Mind, Steven Universe - Fandom
Genre: ARG, Analysis, Gen, Internet, YouTube
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 05:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10530318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doc_Cairo/pseuds/Doc_Cairo
Summary: Good evening friends and welcome to Night Mind. Thank you for joining me in the dark here this evening. Although I hope you’ll forgive me if it doesn't stay too dark in here. Tonight we're going to get a little more sci-fi then we usually do. Let's talk about aliens... we think of them coming from the sky but what if they've been here all along? Living among us, shaping our history, and perhaps... using our internet.





	

**Author's Note:**

> "An ARG is an online game with stories and characters whom you must assist in some manner via solving puzzles/challenges. Bigger ARGs may have real-life challenges, such as a meeting with one of the characters or picking up information somewhere." (Source: Urban Dictionary)
> 
> Effectively, the little bits and pieces Steven, Ronaldo, and Peridot, and perhaps other characters have left on the internet, would to strangers appear to be clues and puzzle pieces that must be assembled to discover a hidden narrative. I'm going to refer to as many canon-pieces of web media as possible, but will be expanding the scope a bit as we go.
> 
> TL;DR - This is the story of someone who watches Steven's Youtube channel, and thinks it's part of a fictional mystery, and is trying to solve it.

Good evening friends and welcome to Night Mind. Thank you for joining me in the dark here this evening. Although I hope you’ll forgive me if it doesn't stay too dark in here. Tonight we're going to get a little more sci-fi then we usually do. Let's talk about aliens.

When I mention aliens your mind probably goes straight to the pop-culture depiction of invaders with advanced technology, here to conquer and destroy us. You might also think of specific instances where aliens are depicted as comrades or equals. Even the few rare occasions where they might be benevolent, and it’s our own human malignance that creates misunderstandings. However in tonight's case, things are a bit murkier. We think of them coming from the sky but what if they've been here all along? Living among us, shaping our history, and perhaps... using our internet.

This is the Night Mind Case Files: Steven Universe.

* * *

 

There is some debate in the community about what to call this particular ARG. No puppetmaster has stepped out from behind the curtain to give the story an official name, and while some have suggested other names, it's simplest simply refer to the name of the title character, his self named TubeTube channel, and the common thread that ties everything together, Steven Universe.

On the surface Steven appears to be a young american boy, seemingly between 10 and 12 years old who lives in the state of Delmarva. And like many children who get their hands on a camera and an internet connection, he has a TubeTube channel and posts about his various interests. TV shows, music, cooking with his pet lion... Wait what?

Yes you heard me right, pet lion. Which is pink. What? Didn't you all know a friend at school who had a pet lion? That's not the only unusual thing about Steven, there's his odd family situation, where he lives with several women he refers to as the Gems, who he claims have magical powers; A claim backed up when we see them fighting some sort of monsters inside his house during his unboxing video. He also appears to have some sort of super powers, as he demonstrates his ability to summon a hard light Shield and create a forcefield around himself.

As disconnected and random as this child’s videos are, when you look past the surface topics, there is something more going on here. Steven offers occasional explanations, but sometimes these raise even more questions. To find the answers, we need to check into the other more obscure parts of this ARG. As in some previous Case Files, we’ll be looking at various social media accounts from across the internet, belonging to several different characters in order to solve this mystery as best we can.

Although Steven's Channel was the first aspect to gain people's attention, other parts of the ARG appear to predate his uploads by more than a year. And we'll start there, with a blog titled Keep Beach City Weird.

* * *

The first post on Keep Beach City Weird predates the first of Steven's uploads by nearly two years. The blog’s writer doesn't initially give a name, referring to himself instead as a truthseeker. Since he wouldn't reveal his real name for several months, let's go ahead and call him Ronaldo. Ronaldo says he's running this blog to document and report on strange happenings in his hometown of Beach City. What it actually is is a mess of conspiracy theories, pop culture reviews and references, and anecdotes from his daily life.

Although a large portion of what he talks about appears to be humorous non sequitur, there are important grains of truth in his postings, even if he himself doesn't know it. And believe me when I say he doesn't, because his very first post makes it very apparent that he's a few french fries short of a Happy Meal. He opens with a claim that President Roosevelt used astral projection to conduct meetings with foreign heads of state. While attempting to astral project, he leaves the gas on at his job at his family's business, causing his father to pass out. His next postings turn out to be an equally ridiculous conspiracy theory about the Apollo moon landings being cover up for the government disposal of vampires. Right off the bat any semblance of credibility is gone. However the first relevant piece of information appears here. Before starting his space vampire nonsense, he describes the following:

 

**_Oh boy, last Monday something CRAZY WEIRD happened in Beach City.  The sky turned blood red!  Winds kicked up so high that my dad’s car flipped over!  And a GIANT EYEBALL THINGY was in the sky!_ **

 

This is the first of many instances involving alleged alien activity around Beach City. There's not much more to say about it yet, just keep in mind how far back in the timeline this is.

The next two posts have little to go off of, but then Ronaldo posts a single picture. There's Steven displaying that he somehow has cats for fingers. Easy enough to dismiss as a photoshop job, until he displays this ability years later in a livestream. Judging by his appearance here, this is the youngest known picture of the boy. Why are his fingers cats? We'll come back to it later.

Next we get to hear an alleged EVP recording that sounds like some kind of monster. After this comes several more non sequitur posts, mention of Steven's lion, strange pink flowers in the wind, an incident where it rains action figures, a movie review of dogcopter 3, and Ronaldo getting banned for the local mini golf course. Like I said there's a lot of red herrings and nonsense in this blog, but believe me the important stuff is coming, and here’s some of it now. Check out this photo of Ronaldo. See this massive purple blur in the background? Even at this point the story we're still not sure what that was, but it's definitely not normal. If scale is to believed, that is something with godzilla proportions.

The next point of interest does blur the line between the game in the real world a bit. If you live anywhere near the east coast of United States, you likely remember the extreme tide event of 2015. This was a true event in which a comet passing extremely close to the Earth exhibited a gravitational pull on the ocean, causing the tide to go out many miles farther than usual for a brief time. It was unexpected and sensational news, and the media and citizenry were in an uproar until the tide came back in and NASADA scientists issued a public explanation.

No one knew this was going to happen. However, that doesn't stop someone from integrating these real-world events into the story. In this case, after the tide returns, Ronaldo claims that Steven and his friends were responsible for the ocean’s return. Within the narrative, the extreme tide event was in fact an alien occurrence. And we get right back on that train of thought about a week later, with a UFO sighting, a ship with it’s rocket trail heading away from Earth.

Now, as disjointed as everything has been so far… here’s where things finally become important. Two weeks later Ronaldo posts “ALL THE PIECES MATTER”, and shows pictures of some unusual things he’s spotted… strange rocks, mysterious holes, unnatural flowers… and then the back of a dollar bill. A few posts later, he posts this.

 

**_DOUBLE NEVERMIND!!! KEEP BEACH CITY WEIRD IS BACK!!!_ **

**_I was completely wrong about Sneople, but I’ve got new theory that’s ROCK SOLID!  Because it has to do with rocks!  Polymorphic Sentient Rocks!!!  They’re here to hollow out the Earth!!!  It’s all a part of the great Diamond Authority!!!!_ **

**_TRUTH!!!!_ **

 

The Great Diamond Authority. Polymorphic sentient rocks. He sounds as raving mad as ever… but as history would later prove… he’s finally right on the money. There are aliens on Earth, as previously discussed… and as hard as it to describe, they are shapeshifting intelligent rocks. Or as Steven will regularly refer to them, Gems. And a group of those gems, this “Diamond Authority”, had designs for Earth in the past… and possibly still do.

What exactly triggered this sudden epiphany? It’s not known at this time, but from this point both the story and the production values really start to ramp up. But I’m afraid we’re out of time for today. Next time, we’ll talk about watermelons, the invasion, a mysterious letter, and the TV hijacking that finally starts tying all the threads together. The more light we shed on this mystery, the more dangerous things are going to get. If you happen to own any large gemstones… maybe lock them up in a small enclosed space for safe keeping. Better safe than sorry...

Nick Nocturne, signing off.

**Author's Note:**

> Man this was a weird idea to try and execute, but I'm pretty happy with how it's going.
> 
> If you are trying to understand this whole "Night Mind" business, I kindly direct you to Youtube to look him up. He covers horror media and alternate reality games, and while I think SU is a bit too on the light-and-soft side for what he usually covers, it was really fun trying to capture his voice and style. While this chapter was mostly summary, from here there will be a lot more inferences and puzzlework, as he starts going through things like Steven's videos and Peridot's twitter.
> 
> Also, the bolded above is direct quotations from the Keep Beach City Weird tumblr maintained by the show's writers, and is therefore not my writing.


End file.
